The Morning After
by Arileo
Summary: Hal 'Otacon' Emmerich was not the type to indulge in a lot of alchohol...


Title: The Morning After

Pairing: Snake/Otacon pre-slash if you squint

Genre: Fluff/Humor

Rating: PG-13 for mild language

Notes: Hal "Otacon" Emmerich was not the type of person who did a lot of drinking…

* * *

Hal "Otacon" Emmerich was not the type of person who did a lot of drinking, so when he awoke feeling like Unit-02 had been tap-dancing on his skull, and a suspicious hole in his memory, he was understandably concerned.

He was even more concerned when, upon peeking out from under the covers, he realized that he had absolutely no idea where he was.

'Well, this isn't good,' he thought. 'C'mon Otacon, think. What's the last thing you remember?'

Natasha calling…

Finding out about the stolen REX plans…

Needing to talk to someone…

Hopping a plane to… ALASKA?!

Ooooooh crap…

Otacon lay in shock, utterly horrified at the awful revelation he'd just had.

Horrible headache.

Large memory gap.

Bad taste in his mouth.

Strange bed.

A warmth on the back of his neck that could only be someone breathing.

The little voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like that one girl from Vericon squealing the phrase 'blanket fic' wasn't helping.

Just then, his bed companion shifted, giving a soft growl.

'Okay Hal, turn around very veery slowly, and pray Heero's big brother is a morning person.'

Otacon carefully levered himself up into a sitting position turning to come face to face with…

"Woof."

Startled, the engineer backed up only to find that he'd been perched near the edge of the bed when he fell off it.

The dog was immediately by his side, licking his face.

"Gyah, stoppit, cut that out."

"Dammit. Mama? What'd he do this time?" Said a gruff voice from the next room.

The dog, a Husky, Otacon noted, turned away from him to bark at the door.

"I'm coming," the voice shouted.

The door opened, and a man walked in. Confused by what his blurry vision saw, Otacon squinted, trying to make out the man's features.

"Snake?" He said at last.

"Yeah." It sounded like Snake.

"Um… you're blonde…"

"Yes Hal," Snake said, sounding faintly amused, "We established this already."

Snake bent down to Otacon's side, and carefully put his arm around the smaller man's shoulders.

"Okay, up we go."

"Snake? Wha-"

Before Otacon new it he was back in bed, being carefully tucked in.

"Snake, what's going on?" he asked, struggling to sit back up.

"Hmm? You finally making sense again?" The soldier said, sitting down at the side of the bed. "Do you remember what happened?"

"How much did I drink?" Otacon asked as his head started to throb again.

"Well, that answers that question." Snake chuckled.

"What do you mean?"

"Tell me what you do remember; I'll fill in the blanks."

"Umm…" the otaku thought, "I was… in some town, asking for directions to your cabin…obviously I got them."

"Do you remember getting here?" Snake asked.

"No."

Snake chuckled again. It was a surprisingly nice sound.

"I was out front with the dogs, when you drove up. You got out of the car, started rambling about being sorry to disturb me. I invited you in, you got maybe two steps before you slipped on a patch of ice, fell backwards, hit your head on your car's front bumper and wound up knocking yourself silly."

"Umm, I don't… remember that…"

"You've been fading in and out of consciousness all day, acting pretty loopy. Unfortunately, you got here just before a freak storm. There was no time for me to get you down to the clinic, so I've been taking care of you myself. Mama here's been helping me keep an eye on you."

"Mama?"

"Oh, right. This here is Big Mama," Snake said, patting the Husky on her side, "She's my best girl."

"Umm… hi?" Otacon said softly to the dog. She made a wuffing sound, and put her head on his lap.

"How's your head?" Snake asked, "You want some aspirin?"

Looking up, Otacon realized just how close the other man was, close enough that he didn't need his glasses to make out the familiar face. He nodded slowly; hopping his blushing would be mistaken for a fever or something.

"Ah, okay…"

Snake reached over to the nightstand, where a glass of water and small pill bottle were waiting.

"Here," He handed Otacon two little pills, and carefully watched him wash them down.

"You should lie back down now."

Otacon didn't complain as Snake pushed him down onto the pillows and pulled up the blankets to his shoulders. For a man who could snap necks with his bare hands, he was surprisingly gentle.

"Hey, Snake?"

"Yeah?"

"Um… I didn't… do anything… odd… earlier, did I?"

"You mean besides singing in Japanese? Or when you kept muttering something about beavers?"

"Oh god…"

Snake laughed. "People do weird things when they're concussed, Otacon. Don't worry about it. Go to sleep. Storm shouldn't last more than a few more hours. I'll drive you down into town and have the Doc take a look at you in the morning."

Snake adjusted the blankets one last time, and patted him on the shoulder.

"Sleep."

As he started to drift off, Otacon thought he might have felt a hand touch his face, but he couldn't be sure. In his last bit of awareness he felt the bed shift again as Snake got up, and Big Mama jumped up and tucked herself into his side.

"Good night, Hal."

OWARI


End file.
